“He said the parts for the photovoltaic system will be here in four weeks.” Truman leaned forward, catching her gaze. “You didn’t tell me you were going with that power system again.”

“I made a decision.” Warning bells went off in her head at his quiet tone. She shoved a huge bite of spinach leaves in her mouth.

He pressed his lips together. “You know best what you need done up there, but that’s the fourth big decision that you have left me out of. I felt completely out of the loop when he talked to me about the system as if I knew everything about it.”

His words were gentle, but she knew she’d hurt him. She set down her fork. “I’m sorry. Sometimes I forget that you’re in this with me.”

“You forget?” He looked stunned.

Open mouth, insert foot. “What I mean is that the cabin has been my baby for years. I’m not accustomed to discussing it with anyone. It’s a habit. I’m on automatic pilot when it comes to dealing with it.”

He nodded but didn’t look convinced.

She reached across the desk and took his hand. “I love you. This is our project. I’ll try harder to include you.”

“I haven’t paid for any of the construction yet.” His eyes narrowed. “How much have you paid out?”

“It doesn’t matter—”

“Yes, it does. You just said this is our project. That means I contribute.”

Pride and independence rose within her. Plus she made more money than the small-town police chief. “I’m using the insurance payout.”

“But you had to meet the deductible.”

“I used the money I was saving for a down payment on a new house.”

“Mercy . . .” Disappointment filled his face.

He has pride too.

“When the insurance money runs out, we’ll divide everything, okay?” His obvious hurt stung deep in her heart. She’d made two big blunders and not even noticed. This relationship stuff is hard. I need to share the pain-in-the-butt and expensive stuff too . . . not just the happy stuff.

She’d been on her own for a long time. The routines and decisions that felt perfectly normal to her felt exclusionary to Truman.

“Okay,” he said, standing up and collecting the garbage from their lunch. “I need to get back to work.”

I didn’t convince him.

She’d have to show him she meant it.

“I do too.” She came around the desk and kissed him goodbye.

I will try harder.

It was nearly midnight when Truman’s officer Samuel Robb woke him up with a call to come to a scene. It took Truman a full ten seconds to connect faces to the names Samuel stated.

The Moody brothers.

Ryan Moody had returned to the home he shared with his brother, Clint, and found a lot of blood in Clint’s bedroom. Clint Moody was missing. Samuel had already checked with the local hospital and clinics to see if Clint had come in as a patient. No luck.

On the drive over, Truman wondered if one of the brothers had finally been pushed over the edge, lost his temper, and done away with the other.

The Moodys lived in an older Eagle’s Nest neighborhood. The homes sat on large lots with the garages behind the houses. The road was gravel, and Truman’s headlights shone on dented and crooked mailboxes along the street. He pictured teens cruising along the street with a baseball bat, trying to knock the boxes from their posts. As a teen Truman had hung with friends who’d played mailbox baseball, but he’d never taken the bat. He’d laughed along with them but passed on destruction of property, knowing his uncle would hang him if he was caught. Looking back now, he knew the cops would have arrested him for simply being in the car, not caring that he claimed he’d never touched the bat.

Truman parked next to Samuel’s patrol vehicle and spotted his distinctive silhouette in the front door of the Moody home—the cop’s slightly spread legs, his crossed arms, and his buzz-cut head. He was reliable, sharp, and physically fit. The only one of his officers who checked all three boxes. Truman felt secure when Samuel backed him up.

Truman met Samuel on the small concrete porch. “What do we have?”

“Ryan is a mess,” said Samuel, “and Clint’s truck is gone.”

“Ryan doesn’t believe he drove somewhere?”

“With the amount of blood in the home, the only place I would drive is to the hospital.”

“Maybe he drove off the road if he’s severely injured.”

“I put out a BOLO on his truck. It’s a ten-year-old Ford Ranger. Black.”

Truman stepped closer and lowered his voice. “I broke up a bar fight between these guys the other day. Could Ryan have hurt his brother?”

Samuel pressed his lips into a line as he considered. “Ryan’s a big guy. Physically he could do it. But if he’s acting about being upset, he’s got me fooled. I got in fights with my brothers all the time. Doesn’t mean I’d really hurt them.”

He knew Samuel had good instincts, but all of them had been conned before. Truman would make up his own mind. “Show me the way.”

Inside the small house, Ryan sat on the couch with his head in his hands, staring at his feet. He didn’t look up at Truman, and Samuel gave a jerk of his head for Truman to follow him. He’d talk to Ryan in a few minutes. Obviously the man wasn’t interested in speaking at the moment.

They stopped at the first bedroom. The king-size bed nearly filled the entire room. A flat-screen TV hung on the wall, and several game consoles sat on a small table beneath it. A sheet hung over the window, and a curtain and two pairs of dirty jeans lay on the floor.

Blood had soaked into the pillow and splattered on the wall. The heavier spots still glistened with moisture.

“Jesus.” Someone had been brutally beaten. Recently. “Did you see any blood on Ryan or his clothes?”

“No. And I checked the sinks and showers. All dry. No wet towels in the laundry. If he did this, he cleaned up somewhere else.”

The covers were shoved back, and more blood smeared the sheets. “I don’t see any heavy bloodstains or trails on the carpet,” Truman said. “A little spatter here and there.”

“I noticed that too. I’m sure county will spray it and check for blood.”

Truman squatted and studied the carpet. “It’s not wet. No one cleaned up the rug. Is there blood elsewhere in the house?”

“I’ve done a quick search and didn’t see anything.” Samuel gestured at the bed. “With an injury like that, I’d expect blood trails. There’s nothing.”

Truman pulled the flashlight off his belt and shone it under the bed. Dust bunnies, dirty Kleenex, and a paper plate holding several old pizza crusts. A small white object caught his eye. “Samuel, get a photo of this.”

Samuel took a picture of the mess under the bed with his department cell phone, and then Truman used a pen to move the white object closer.

It was small and pointy, with blood covering two-thirds of an end. A tooth.

“One of his teeth was knocked out,” said Samuel. “No question this guy was seriously injured.”

Truman imagined the tooth arcing through the air to land on the floor and then accidentally being kicked under the bed by the attacker. “Have you found a weapon?”

“No. But I haven’t searched outside yet. County is sending an evidence team.”

“Good call.” Truman stood and stared at the pillow, a suspicion simmering in his thoughts, thinking of Mercy’s current cases. “This blood pattern reminds me of a case Mercy is working on.” A stomach-lurching notion struck him. “Any kids live here? Does either man have kids?”

“Ryan said just the two of them live here. I guess their kids could live somewhere else.”

“I’d like to talk to Ryan now.”

This time Ryan looked up when Truman stepped into the living room, recognition flashing in his eyes. After Ryan and Clint had sobered up in the Eagle’s Nest holding cells, Truman had let them go after a stern lecture that he didn’t want to see them again for beating up on each other.

And here they were . . . well, one of them.

Ryan’s eyes were red, and he wiped his nose. He wore jeans, work boots, and a John Deere cap. He stood as Truman approached. Truman noted his fingernails were dark around all the edges, but it was the deep stain that comes from years of grimy physical work. His hands and knuckles had scabbed abrasions that Truman recalled being fresh on the night of the bar fight. He also had a colorful bruise on his cheekbone and a healing split lip from that night.

Truman didn’t see any new injuries.

“Before we start, do you or your brother have kids?”

Ryan stared, a confused look on his face. “No. Why?”

“Just checking.” Truman gestured for him to sit back down, and took a seat in a chair facing him. Samuel stood in his usual pose with his arms crossed. “What happened when you got home?”

Ryan cleared his throat. “Nothing happened. I pulled up around nine and was a little surprised that Clint’s truck wasn’t here because I know he has to get up early, but I didn’t think much of it. I’d been home for a good two hours before I noticed the blood in his room. I’d left the light on in the bathroom across the hall and caught the stain on his sheets out of the corner of my eye.” He took a shuddering breath.

“Did you touch anything in the room?”

“Only the light switch.”

“What did you do next?”

“I checked all the other rooms and then called you guys. While I was waiting I called the hospital. No one under his name had been admitted.”

“No John Does in the hospital either, and I checked all the emergency clinics,” added Samuel.

“Is anything missing?” asked Truman.

Ryan wiped under his nose with the back of his hand. “The only things worth stealing are the TVs and game systems. Everything is still here.”